Laundry System In Place – Surrender

It has taken me ten years to finally give up on laundry and in that ten years I have always been behind. After being sick off and on for two weeks I finally considered my husbands suggestion. Bear in mind my husband is not like many husbands and he is actually the neater, housework motivated person in our relationship but even he was realistic and long ago suggested letting it all go.

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My new system is as follows:

Laundry comes up from the laundry room and all family members sort the clothes into baskets. Primary focus for kids is grabbing and filling their own basket. Occasionally I will push them to continue sorting mine, papa’s, towels and sheets etc. but only if it is flowing. After the laundry is sorted the kids put baskets back to their rooms and do with it what they want.

I have been folding mine and my husbands but I feel really awesome about letting the kids go. The clothes usually end up on the floor anyways as they pull clothes out of the dresser in search for the right garment.

So far this is working out really well. I feel like they are helping and they feel like helping is easy. The best part is that everybody can find what they need because they put it away (sort of) and it is actually accessible as opposed to in mixed piles in the basement. My work load is easier!

One interesting fact is that one of my boys – the middle child has been folding his anyways. He chooses this and I find it interesting how he never would fold clothes without a fight before now.

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2 Responses to “Laundry System In Place – Surrender”

Good system. You know, of all the life tasks that need to be done all the time, laundry’s always been my least favourite. I’ve tried to learn to love it–or at least resent it less–but post-Ender, I’ve essentially given in to hating it and just worked to minimize the amount of time it takes up. So my system starts with dirty laundry segregation: the older two kids have a laundry basket in their room, dh has a laundry basket in his office, and the little and I, who share a closet, share a laundry basket as well. I do one closet’s laundry at a time–which means I just toss the thing in, heave it out, and take it up to the relevant room. I fold and put away mine and Ender’s. I might do dh’s. The elder two do theirs with some help/direction from me. Sheets, towels, diapers, kitchen laundry: each gets its own load so the separation process is pretty minimal. And I try to never have more than one or two to do in a day–and to give myself conscious “no laundry!” days.

Where it all goes to hell is when … well, we go away for a week, and there’s a week’s worth of laundry to process all at once, when everything’s all mixed up etc. That was yesterday. Yuck.

I did find that culling everyone’s closet to 7-10 days worth of clothes really helped me too. Except, of course, on mud-rolling days when that 7-10 days worth of clothes turns into three days worth of clothes!

I try to keep in mind how hard my mother–grandmother–great-great-great-grandmothers–must have had it before automated washing machines, dryers and the like… but that exercise doesn’t always work. Just not that fond of laundry.

Tricks of the trade eh? Best way to learn is hands on through trial and error.
I also think of my grand folks often and I can remember my grandma crystal clear watching her as she fed the clothes through her wringer and I caught them out the other side. I would follow her out to the clothesline and she would have the clothespins in her mouth. She was calm and focused. I gues she did not have to hurry off to check FB!! 😉